Monday was Day 14 of the June Food Stamp Challenge.
Monday was also the day 2 of the mouths I feed left home--one will be back in a week, one is gone for the summer.
So I am down to 3 people in the home this week.
And the rate at which the food gets eaten up here will slow waaaay down.
Or will it?
Though I only have 3 people to feed this week, yesterday was the last day of school for #2 son.
That means my food bill will increase because a couple of the neighborhood kids hang out here during summer recess.
We have a pool and a mom(me) who will feed whatever stray teen shows up.
While the JFSC doesn't allow me extra in my food budget, I will go through extra food rations for the remainder of this month.
If someone is living off of EBT alone, having extra hungry teens eating through your kitchen cabinets and fridge could mean running out of food before the month is out. You want to be welcoming to your kids friends but it could be very stressful to your budget to have them around.
You could try to stretch the food budget by buying cheaper foods. This might work as teens love all that processed junkie food, but it would also mean pouring empty unhealthy calories into their growing bodies(which is bad) plus your family's food choices would also suffer as you'd either have to buy less of the healthy food or buy lesser quality of foods for your own use as well to stay on budget.
I am NOT buying soda but the teens require a teeny bit of sugary beverages along with the water I make them drink, so I'll make them homemade lemonade(at least they will get real citrus fruit along with the sugar in the deal). As a cheaper alternative to soda we'll break out the Kool-aid on occasion...the packet ones where you add your own sugar as that is less costly than the premade canister stuff(and more eco-friendly since you only have a small paper packet to compost and not a big plastic container to recycle).
For snacks I'll do some crudites(raw veggies)and dip, homemade hummus and crackers, sliced apples and peanut butter, and homemade pizza(offering some veggie options to go under the pepperoni slices), and make stir-frys with frozen veggies and the ramen noodles they always eat. Once the garden starts producing tomatoes(crossing fingers!), I'll offer BLTs and Fried Zuchinni slices.
How would you handle this dilemna?
And please share any low cost/healthy-ish foods I can offer the gang of teens this summer. (Nothing with margarine or artificial sweeteners however.) I'd love to hear any ideas!
Back to our Eating for the last 2 days.....
Monday was leftover Turkey with Dehydrated Mashed Potatoes, homemade gravy using the leftover pan drippings from when I roasted the Turkey last week, and peas to round out the meal. Cost of food...turkey-free, potatoes-free, peas-.30¢, gravy-.10¢ for the flour/butter/spices=.40¢
Tuesday was Beef Enchiladas with Corn. I added the leftover chili from last week to the beef filling and made my homemade Enchilada Sauce.
Since I did no grocery shopping the last 2 days, my only 'spending' was for the food used that was bought before June.
We are halfway through June and our food budget is looking good! Sticking to the budget on the back end of the month will be vital to staying on task.
'Spending' for Day Fourteen and Fifteen...$2.10
Spent to Date....$142.76
June Food Budget Left....$267.96
Days of Challenge Left....15
Sluggy
